


Cold Chills

by personqwer



Series: Inhumanities [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Body Horror, Character Study, Deviates From Canon, Graphic Description, Mental Instability, Mild Gore, Other, Pain, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 17:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11212797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/personqwer/pseuds/personqwer
Summary: Seto Kaiba finds his skin itching and flaking off after a series of recurring nightmares haunting his nights. This seemingly unrelated skin condition turns out to be far more sinister when he soon realizes his body is turning into something all too familiar, and nowhere near human...





	Cold Chills

An unpleasant, recurring dream plagued Kaiba for the past few weeks. Whenever he woke up at his usual 4:25 A.M. time, all he could remember from the dream was a familiar, yet uncomfortably hot feeling on his skin and in his throat. It burned and prickled and drove him to impulsively pick at his skin, and he took cold showers every morning to purge the feeling. But one of these nights was different than the others.

Kaiba woke up before his alarm rang in a cold sweat. He reached over to his clock on his bedside table and turned the alarm off. Sitting up quickly, he reached over and turned his light on. He winced, the room being suddenly bathed in bright white light having caught his tired eyes off guard. He felt wrong, he felt like his skin was peeling off. 

He stood up, his knees nearly giving way underneath him as he made his way to the bathroom in his room. Turning on every light available, he inspected his skin for anything unusual.

Kaiba heard the door to his room open, and he glanced back at it to see his little brother, Mokuba, walking in to check on him. Mokuba wore pajama pants and a shirt that had stars on it.

“Nii-sama…?” Mokuba rubbed his eyes with one hand as he looked up at his brother with a face of concern. “Are you… Okay?”

“Mokuba… What are you doing up?” Kaiba asked, clearing his throat. His throat felt dry.

“I had a bad dream.” Mokuba said quietly, “And… I woke up thinking you were in danger.”

Kaiba looked back into his mirror, and felt his jaw for any imperfections. He felt some flaking skin right under his ear, and cringed. 

“I'm not in danger.” He assured, but he knew that wouldn't convince Mokuba; he was perceptive for a kid.

“But, nii-sama…” Mokuba started, “Your skin…”

Mokuba pointed at Kaiba’s hand. It was flaking along the back just as much as along Kaiba’s jaw. 

Kaiba impulsively began to pick at it, and he was able to get rid of most of the dead skin that was flaking. But what remained still didn't look good, there were red splotches on his hand, though not immediately obvious. 

“Should you see a doctor?” Mokuba asked, “That doesn't look good…”

Kaiba felt a chill go down his spine. He was hosting a Duel Monsters tournament in just two weeks. If he went to the doctor now, it could compromise the scheduled date, especially if it turned out to be serious. He also couldn't help but feel that this condition he had come down with wouldn't be fixed by a doctor.

“No… I'll be fine. I'll just put lotion on it.” Kaiba assured, inspecting the rest of his hand and fingers, soon picking at the skin around his nails.

Mokuba watched Kaiba as he tore up his skin. He reached up and hesitated to pull on Kaiba’s sleeve before saying, 

“Don't pick at it, nii-sama!”

Kaiba willed himself to pull his hand away, and instead grab the lotion he had by his bathroom sink.

-

Days later, Kaiba could only notice his condition worsen. He even had more trouble sleeping, through a combination of his discomfort not letting him close his eyes and his vivid night terrors waking him up only to immediately leave his memories.

This particular night, Kaiba woke up at 3:02 in the morning, significantly earlier than his usual alarm. He was drenched in sweat, and his throat was burning. He sat up out of bed, and reached over to turn his light on again. He felt absolutely disgusting, his nightshirt was sticking to him and his bangs clinged to his forehead.

His skin was peeling again, especially on his neck. He pulled his shirt collar down to begin rubbing off the flakes as he stood up, and went back into his familiar bathroom. Every morning, for days now, he's had to clean himself up more than usual.

He itched behind his neck, and felt a sharp jolt of pain. He had broken the skin, and he was bleeding. Not enough to be dangerous, but he was confused at how he managed to scratch himself enough to draw blood. He pulled off some neat squares from his nearby roll of toilet paper and held it at the back of his neck to catch the blood, before it ruined his shirt. 

He used his other hand to hold it, as he examined his dominant hand, the one that did the deed. He did a double take, not expecting to see what he saw on his fingers.

His nails were ever-so-slightly pointed. And the skin around them wasn't so much as flaking, than it was hardening. Upon looking closer, his skin on his fingertips was shiny, and pale. The way it reflected his bathroom light reminded him of snake scales, but white. The reflective, scaley skin had crawled up the back of his fingers to his second finger knuckle. 

Kaiba stared wide eyed, his chest feeling tight. What was wrong? What condition did he have, and how serious could it be, that it was mutating his own body?

He took his other hand off his neck, the toilet paper sticking to his sweat and blood-caked skin. He examined his other hand, only to discover with increasing alarm that the same thing was happening to that hand as well. He attempted to pick off the scaley skin, only to be answered with pain. It wouldn't come off. Neither would his nails, they were tougher than what could possibility be considered human. 

Kaiba felt lightheaded, and stumbled backward, still staring at his fingers. He felt goosebumps over his entire body, and couldn't stop shaking. He flexed his hands almost involuntarily to try and rid himself of the intense discomfort. 

He ended up falling backwards into his bathtub, smacking the back of his head on the tile wall. He couldn't even properly react until he was on the floor of his shower, where he lay groaning.

It didn't take long for his little brother to wake up and discover him there. Mokuba spotted Kaiba in the tub and cried, “Nii-sama!! Are you okay?!”

Mokuba reached down to help him, but Kaiba put his hand up. He was shaking like a dog, but willed himself to say, “No… Mokuba, I…”

Mokuba saw the condition that Kaiba’s hands were in. He went wide-eyed, and took a small step back.

“Nii-sama… W-what’s..?”

Kaiba sat up while pulling his quivering legs in the bathtub with him, crossing them. He couldn't make eye contact with his little brother, and instead kept staring at his hands. 

“I.. I don't know.. I.. This can't be real.”

Mokuba reached forward and gently touched one of Kaiba’s fingers. He pulled his hand back, and said with deepening concern, “It's… Like a snake.”

Mokuba at this point realized that Kaiba couldn't go to a doctor about this. It was that supernatural stuff, that started happening to Kaiba ever since he got involved in this 3000-year-old-battle destiny nonsense.

“Nii-sama… Do you think this is..?”

“I've had enough of this occult bullshit!” Kaiba started pulling himself out of the tub, but he was still shaky on his feet. He felt weak, and instinctively grabbed onto Mokuba to help him up.

“A-Ah-!” Mokuba cried, Kaiba’s heart sinking immediately. He had accidentally grazed Mokuba’s cheek with his unnaturally sharp nails trying to gain his footing.

“Mokuba, I-I… I'm so sorry..” Kaiba stammered, nearly tripping again on his way out of the tub. Mokuba caught him and helped him up again, squinting his left eye. 

“I-It’s okay, nii-sama… We have gloves, right?”

“Mokuba, your face.. I..”

Mokuba forced a smile, reassuring his brother with, “Worry about yourself first for right now. It's just a scratch.”

Kaiba grit his teeth and flexed his fingers so intensely they began to ache. Mokuba led him back to his bed, where he sat, staring at his hands again. He finally put his hands together, and felt them. Exactly like snakeskin, and his nails were more akin to claws now than human nails.

Mokuba had pulled the band-aids out of the cupboard beneath the sink, and put one of the larger ones on his cheek. He brought the box over to Kaiba after noticing scratch marks on his neck. 

“I'll look into this on my own, nii-sama. It's still hide-able… It'll be fine.”

Kaiba’s chest was still tight. What kind of monster was he becoming, and why? He was absolutely miserable, his own skin was falling off and now snakeskin was replacing it. How far would this go, and how would he hide it if it became unmanageable?

“What’s happening to me..?” Kaiba asked to himself quietly, wincing when Mokuba applied a bandage to his neck.

-

The next few weeks were immensely stressful. Kaiba managed to hide his condition with gloves, and he knew none of his employees would dare question his fashion.

The small tournament he had been hosting went relatively well, as Kaiba had Mokuba at his side to bark at any attendees who so much as looked at Kaiba funny. But Kaiba was much less than content, his gloves were even more uncomfortable to wear than usual. His new-grown claws scraped the insides of the fingers of his gloves whenever he moved them, creating the most awful sensation. They were leather, and his nails gliding against that texture was all wrong. It made him want to vomit.

When he and Mokuba returned home, Mokuba smiled as he held the rare cards that Kaiba had won during the tournament. However, despite annihilating the competition, Kaiba was unable to get his mind off of what his skin looked like. The snakeskin had been steadily crawling up his hands and his arms, and the only good thing that came out of it was that his scales didn't flake off or sweat while he (barely) slept. 

Kaiba avoided talking to his house cleaners and other various employees and went straight back to his room. His room wasn't as neat and tidy as it used to be, simply because of Kaiba’s increasing concern with his illness. He refused to let any maids or butlers into his room in fear of them discovering him without his entire body covered.

Kaiba removed his duel disc and placed it on his bedside table. Mokuba put his deck in his drawer, along with the cards he had won earlier that day. 

He wasted no time to pull his gloves off and look over his hands again. His gloves gave some resistance, seeming to get caught on the scales on his finger joints. Kaiba cringed, his stomach tying itself in knots at the awful sensation, but soon his hands were free.

Mokuba looked at Kaiba’s inhuman claws and sighed, “They're looking worse every day…”

Kaiba said nothing, just started taking off his jacket, and turtleneck underneath. Upon pulling it over his head, Mokuba gasped out loud.

“Nii-sama! Your back…”

Kaiba was afraid Mokuba would give that kind of reaction. His back was itchy… and so was his chest, and his shoulders…

Kaiba reached up to scratch his shoulders, making sure to not press down too hard. The smooth texture he felt underneath his fingertips told him everything. He felt his human skin flaking away along the edges of his silvery splotches. Kaiba couldn't get used to it, it was like a horrifying rash gone wrong, or a spreading skin disease. 

Kaiba couldn't think, his mind was static. All he could do was grimace and itch what spots he could reach. He feverishly scratched at his flaking skin to get it all off, and not being able to reach it all nearly drove him mad. 

Desperately, Kaiba said while sitting on his mattress, “Mokuba! Itch back there.. It hurts.”

Mokuba nodded and started to itch at the splotches on Kaiba’s middle to lower back. Kaiba jerked his body when he scratched on the surface of his scales, Kaiba yelling, “Not there!”

Mokuba jumped and immediately apologized, and said, “O-okay, nii-sama…”

Kaiba arched his back to allow Mokuba to scratch him. In a way, it was soothing. It was mildly painful, especially because Mokuba didn't know exactly how hard to dig in his nails, but Kaiba was unwilling to snap at him. His brother was the only one he could trust with this whole predicament.

Kaiba bit into the side of his hand to avoid screaming. He was greeted to a sharp prick of pain, and he realized with horror that his teeth felt sharper. He didn't let go, however, and sat there on his bed as Mokuba worked.

-

That very night, Mokuba ended up sleeping in Kaiba’s bed with him because he was worried. Kaiba didn't want him to, but Mokuba had insisted.

Kaiba couldn't sleep at all that night, he sat staring at his ceiling for hours, dissociating as he counted how many times the ceiling fan rocked back and forth from the force of its spinning.

Mokuba was snoring softly, obviously fast asleep. Kaiba at least was able to find comfort in knowing that this wasn't happening to Mokuba. He didn't know what he would do if the cruel universe started punishing his innocent baby brother for his own bullshit destiny, or whatever. 

Kaiba closed his eyes, searching for his happy place, or at the very least a quiet place where he didn't have to think about anything. 

As he dozed off, he was able to find momentary peace. He thought about nothing, and there was blissful silence all around him. The void was comforting, it banished his worries from his mind and everything was okay. At least for a little while.

Though, as if it was the calm before a storm, the peace did not last. In his half-asleep state, he had bright, vivid hallucinations. They were loud, and colorful, and upsetting, having thrust him from the stillness of void into the confusing wonderland of sensory overload. The visions made no sense, but at the same time, they forced a message into his head.

Duel Yugi. Duel him and win if you want the pain to stop. Duel him if you want your humanity to stay intact.

Kaiba awoke from his nightmare in a flash, coughing and gasping for air. He was having difficulty breathing, he felt sick to his stomach and his throat was inflamed.

He tore himself out of bed in an instant, nearly tripping over his own feet as he made his way back to his bathroom. He stood in front of his bathroom mirror, trying to ground himself in reality and avoid throwing up 

He dry heaved for what felt like an eternity over his sink, but nothing came up. He hadn't eaten at all today anyway, he had lost his appetite. Breathing at all burned his throat as if it was on fire, and looking at himself in his mirror terrified him. His throat was glowing faintly, and white light poured out of his mouth. He recognized this light all too well.

Burst Stream.

Not only that, but his eyes were bright, too bright. He tried to gain back control of his breathing by taking deep breaths, and and even though the burning glow didn't fade, he managed to distract from the pain by focusing on other features.

He ran his tongue over his teeth, uncomfortable by how sharp they were. They were sore, as if he had tightened braces on. Kaiba covered his mouth with both hands and groaned. He was looking paler by the minute.

Mokuba at that time had woken up, and he looked over at his older brother. Rubbing his eyes, he suddenly realized what was going on and hopped out of bed.

“Nii-sama!” Mokuba said, concern washing over his face, “What’s-?!”

Kaiba was hit with another dizzy spell, and snapped, “Be quiet, Mokuba!” 

In speaking, smoke and the smell of burning leaked from Kaiba’s mouth. He coughed, and dropped down to one knee on the hard tile floor. Mokuba ran to his side, prepared to hold him up if Kaiba couldn't support himself.

“Nii-sama, you're.. What's going on?!” Mokuba cried, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. “W-Why are you turning into…”

Kaiba dropped to both knees this time, putting one hand down on the floor to support himself. His other hand was still over his mouth, struggling to hold back the burning sensation and suffocate it.

“A-A Blue-Eyes?!” Mokuba wiped his eyes. He sat there, not knowing what to do and getting angry at himself for it.

“M-Mokuba..” Kaiba said through his teeth, but was unable to finish his thought. He was ravished with sudden, violent pain along his bare back. He cried out in agony, struggling to muffle himself by biting his hand again. 

Mokuba flinched, he had never heard Kaiba in such horrible pain before. It briefly crossed his mind again that Kaiba’s condition was still secret to everyone, who knows how terribly this would go down with the executives at KaibaCorp? Mokuba had to do something, anything, to prevent that from happening.

Mokuba stood up at Kaiba hunched pathetically over the floor, trying not to scream. Mokuba pulled out all of the drawers in the bathroom, searching for one thing, until he found it: a hand towel. He rolled up the perfectly good piece of cloth and prayed that Kaiba would forgive him for this later. He crouched next to Kaiba once more, and pulled Kaiba’s hand away from his mouth.

Kaiba didn't have a chance to question what Mokuba was doing before Mokuba shoved the hand towel deep into his mouth. Kaiba looked shocked and angry, but his pain made him quickly forget what was going on as he bit down tightly on the towel. It muffled his horrific screaming enough so that it was unlikely anyone else in the house would hear them.

Kaiba struggled to focus on the pain in his teeth as he bit the towel, but the explosive pain in his shoulder blades was too much to bear. He screamed into the towel, clawing at the tile floor and making Mokuba cringe and plug his ears.

He felt as if the skin on his back was being torn open from the inside. He felt horribly sick as he heard the sound of bone crunching and shifting in his body.

Mokuba stared in absolute terror as two new limbs sprouted from Kaiba’s back, cracking and twitching unnaturally. They stretched and contorted his scaly skin in a way that Mokuba never wanted to see outside of a horror movie. 

Kaiba lowered his head, tears forming in his own eyes as he grabbed at his hair and pulled in attempt to distract from the disgusting transmutation of his body. He cried out futile protests in his head as he started to feel similar burning pain in his tailbone. Mokuba even had to look away, as his spine violently grew longer, giving him a sharp, and glittery tail. He had no control of his new limbs as they continued to grow, his tail slamming against the open drawers and slamming them shut.

The thin, veiny membrane in between Kaiba’s torso and his growing wings had finally begun to solidify. Kaiba felt his pain lessen, and he stopped screaming. However, he felt weak, and humiliated. He collapsed onto the floor of his bathroom, and lay there, his new body parts limp around him. He couldn't think about anything except his pain, and ended up blacking out.

-

Kaiba woke up to Mokuba shaking him by the shoulder. Mokuba had tears streaming down his face, but he looked relieved when Kaiba opened his eyes.

The pain had gone, and all that was left was that familiar discomfort, oh how he had missed that. Kaiba was still feeling overwhelmed, and slowly began to push himself off of the floor. He shuddered when he felt his tail drag across the cold tile. Having feeling in something that shouldn't be there was so alienating. Kaiba felt the same way with his wings. They twitched when he thought about them, but otherwise he didn't have full control. He was like an infant, and he hated not knowing how his body was working.

“Nii-sama, you're okay…” Mokuba sniffled. “I'm sorry about earlier. But… I think it was good that I did that. Look!”

Mokuba showed Kaiba the hand towel that he had lodged in his older brothers mouth. It was scorched black on one side of it, consistent with the pattern in which it had been rolled up.

Kaiba groaned, and pulled himself to his feet. Looking over himself, he was now primarily covered in white, iridescent scales, save for his face, and the front of his torso. He didn't even want to think about checking under his boxers, so he decided to pretend that didn't exist.

He looked back at his wings and tail, experimenting a bit and seeing if he could get them to move.

He got his tail to move, and after thinking about it for a few moments, discovered he already seemed to know how to control it by nature. The same was for his wings. He couldn't stretch them out to their full length in the confines of his room though. He found his apparent knowledge to using his foreign limbs disturbing, just as he had found his sudden ability to read Egyptian hieroglyphs disturbing once. 

Mokuba managed to smile a little, and said, “At least you look really cool, nii-sama!”

Kaiba scratched at his chin, and said, “I think I know how to reverse this.”

“You do?” 

“I have to duel Yugi,” Kaiba said, a small amount of bitterness in his voice, “I… Just feel it.” 

It always comes down to dueling Yugi, doesn't it? 

Mokuba seemed surprised, “Really, that's all? Well… You'll win this time, nii-sama! We just… Have to get to him somehow.”

Kaiba walked past Mokuba, and into his room again. His tail hit the corner of the wall, making him wince, but he ignored the pain and opened up his expansive closet. 

“I know where he lives.” Kaiba said.

“You do? Why..?” Mokuba asked, following close behind.

“He's my rival,” Kaiba replied, thinking it was no big deal.

“Okay…”

Kaiba figured none of his clothes, save for ones he never wore, would fit him with his wings in the way. He bitterly pulled a flexible tank top over his wings and his head, having his wings share the arm holes with his arms.

He also pulled on some pants, but he quickly realized that his tail wouldn't allow them to be pulled up all of the way. Cursing himself, he made do with that progress and decided to conceal the base of his tail by tying his signature white jacket around his waist. It still flowed behind him, even when he wasn't wearing it properly.

He didn't bother putting shoes on, since his feet had claws now too, after that horrific transformation earlier. 

“Nii-sama, how are we going to get out of here without you being seen?” Mokuba asked, as Kaiba walked right past him and opened up his bedroom window.

“We're going to have to fly.” Kaiba said, looking back at his wings as he flapped them gently. If he knew how to move them, he was confident in his ability to fly with them. He had to, there was no other way out of this. He only managed to get by safely the last month because all of his mutations were easy to hide under his clothes. Wings and tails were not. Kaiba grabbed his deck, put it in his duel disc, and put it on his arm.

“Fly?! Can you even do that, you just grew those wings!” Mokuba exclaimed, but Kaiba simply gestured for him to get on his back while crouching down.

“Just get on.”

Mokuba hesitated for a second, but soon complied, and climbed onto Kaiba’s back in between his wings. He put his arms around his brother’s neck, still not quite used to the feel of scales instead of human skin.

Kaiba reached back and held onto Mokuba’s legs to the best of his ability, and stepped up onto the windowsill. Mokuba held on tighter, nervous of the three-story height Kaiba was about to jump from. 

Kaiba closed his eyes, spread his wings, and willed himself to fly as he jumped.

For a terrifying second, he didn't fly. But with one swoop of his dragon wings, they were off. Kaiba opened his eyes again, feeling the rush of adrenaline all through his body as he rose higher and higher into the sky. They easily bypassed all of Kaiba’s expensive security systems and were free to soar among the clouds. Kaiba turned by tilting his head and his tail, and headed in the direction of Yugi Mutou’s home.

Once they had stopped ascending, Mokuba opened his eyes, and looked down. He stared in awe at the city below them, and laughed a bit.

“Nii-sama! You really are like a Blue-eyes! But better!” 

Kaiba smiled a little bit, fondly remembering when Mokuba drew him a Blue-eyes card when they were little. Sure, Kaiba didn't exactly want to be one himself, but he was glad he had been turning into one rather than anything else, simply because of how much both Mokuba and he cared for it.

It didn't take long to reach Yugi’s house by air. When Kaiba spotted it in the distance. He started to descend, making sure to not linger in case he and Mokuba were spotted. He landed behind the building, crouching low to hide himself from potential passerbys.

“Go get him out here, Mokuba…” Kaiba said, letting him off of his back.

“Okay!” Mokuba said, running around to the front of the building, only to discover it as locked, the card shop was closed! But Mokuba needed Yugi now!

Mokuba looked up at Yugi’s window, and noticed it as being open slightly. Grinning, he started scaling the building and managed to reach Yugi’s bedroom. He opened the window further, and climbed inside.

“Yugi!” Mokuba spotted him asleep in his pajamas. Mokuba knew the situation was dire, and decided to shake Yugi awake. “Yugi!! Wake up!”

Yugi woke up with a start, nearly jumping out of his skin. 

“M-Mokuba-kun?!” Yugi asked, confused out of his mind and concerned, “Why are you here, and how did you-?! How did you get in my room?!”

Yugi reached over and turned his bedside lamp on. 

“I used your window, but that's not important right now! It's nii-sama! He needs you!” Mokuba insisted, “He's in your backyard!”

Yugi’s face flushed slightly, “What? Why?”

“I think he's been cursed by some weird Egyptian spell or something, and its been turning him into a Blue-eyes white dragon for like a month now!” Mokuba explained, grabbing Yugi’s arm and dragging him out of bed, “He's been suffering all this time and he only just now figured out he could fix it by dueling you!” 

“Kaiba-kun’s what?!” Yugi almost didn't believe it himself, but Mokuba seemed dead serious. And Mokuba was a good-natured, honest kid. Maybe Kaiba really was cursed… He had uncharacteristically worn gloves to that tournament he hosted a day or two ago.

Yugi grabbed the Millennium Puzzle off his bedside table, and put it over his head. Mokuba was already dragging him to the door, so he decided to go with it. Mokuba let go of him so he could grab his deck and his duel disc.

Yugi and Mokuba both headed downstairs as quietly as they could on the creaky stairs. Yugi guided Mokuba to the back door, and stepped outside.

Kaiba was already standing there, his wings lowered and duel disc out. “Yugi! I know I look less than presentable now, but, I challenge you to a duel!”

Mokuba grinned, Kaiba was looking better already now that he was doing what he does best. His brother would win, and it would fix everything, for sure!

Yugi was about to say something, but his jaw was dropped, and his cheeks red.

Kaiba noticed as Yugi’s more timid aura get washed over by Kaiba’s darker, more confident, true rival. As the headmates switched positions in front, Kaiba watched as Yugi managed to actually look somewhat cool in those kiddish pajamas he had on.

“Heh,” Yami Yugi smirked, holding his duel disc out in front of him, “I thought you'd never ask, Kaiba!”


End file.
